“The red tribe leader and her forces have been spotted crossing the river at the pebblestone ford,” I say to the assembly as soon as everyone is present. We’re packed tightly into the den – although I expanded it at one point as our numbers started increasing, it looks like I need to expand it again.

  All eyes are on me, but my words send a susurration through the Warriors and Pathwalkers. I see mostly nervousness, but some of them evidently have mixed feelings about the approach – particularly those who have only recently joined our village. Understandable, I suppose, considering they’ve started relaxing into village life, and now are forced to consider what might happen if the red leader wins. I suspect that the details I have to share aren’t exactly going to improve their moods, but I want to know if they’re likely to try to defect or run away. Even with the Bond in place, I can’t be everywhere at once, and hesitation can kill in a conflict as can creatively interpreted orders.

  If it comes down to one, that is. Though, given what I’ve seen, I would suspect that that is what the red leader expects.

  “The red leader has come with close on a hundred Warriors and fourteen Pathwalkers other than herself. At least one of the Pathwalkers is a tamer as there are multiple beasts spotted accompanying them as well, though I cannot give you an exact estimate here – it’s something between twelve and twenty with at least five of them being large, heavy beasts.” While I speak, I send the images Sirocco sent me through the Bonds of everyone in this room.

  The red leader intends to make sure that this battle ends here and now, Tarra suggests grimly. I nod at her.

  “I suspect so. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing – it works in our favour to ensure that this matter ends sooner rather than later.”

  Almost a hundred Warriors…that’s a sizeable force, worries Sticks, her claws raking nervously at the edge of her cushion. I can tell by looking around that she’s not the only one thinking that way. She must have called for some support from neighboring red tribe villages.

  We don’t have those numbers even with the combination of the Warriors from all three villages, agrees Yells, uncharacteristically nervous.

  They’re right. Almost a hundred Warriors is definitely overkill for most situations, though in this one I’m determined to show the red leader that it isn’t. Between the three villages, we have less than seventy Warriors and that’s including ones I will have to force with the Bond to fight – which isn’t ideal for multiple reasons.

  Although we have more Pathwalkers in total than the red leader is bringing with her, she’s probably bringing purely combat-focussed Pathwalkers where not all of ours can be considered the best fighters. Which means that, when looking at plain numbers, they had the advantage. Though given the numbers, I have to wonder something.

  “Has the red leader declared war on us, do you think?” I ask the group. In one way it doesn’t change anything; in another, it absolutely does. “If what you say is true and she’s called on Warriors from other villages….”

  Tree-whisperer has a big village, contributes Plant-shaper with a nervous glance at her sisters. But it’s true that it’s not that big. But I recognise about ten of the Warriors in one of the groups as being from our village. Three of the Pathwalkers, too.

  She’s stripped our village of all its remaining protectors! Earth-shaper snaps. I know how many of our people remained to guard our village, and I doubt that there’s a single Evolved left!

  Perhaps she absorbed our village into her own? suggests Plant-shaper, though she sounds doubtful about it. Earth-shaper just scoffs.

  And take on the extra mouths to feed? Considering the fact that she seems to have brought all but the barest skeleton guard of her own fighters? No, face it sister, our Unevolved have been abandoned.

  She seems angry about it, more so than I would have expected from someone who has been taught to see the Unevolved as expendable. But maybe this is a sign that her attitude is changing. If so, good.

  “So you don’t think that the red leader has officially declared war on either our village or tribe?” I check.

  The village, perhaps, Plant-shaper allows, but only as another village. If she had declared war on the green tribe, she would have brought members from many more villages – and would have taken significantly longer to do so. As it is, I only recognise Warriors and Pathwalkers from her village and our…former one.

  I nod slowly. Good. It’s less complicated that way. And, honestly, even if the numbers are in the red leaders’ favour, the terrain is in ours. We haven’t exactly been idle these past few days, suspecting that the red leader’s reaction would be to come in force. That she’s come in more force than we were anticipating is a slight concern, but ultimately our plans don’t seem like they need to change.

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  “Then I would just like to confirm with you the plans for how to deal with this,” I continue firmly. I think that reminding my people that we are not being caught flat-footed is needed in order to reassure them after finding out just how many will be sent against us.

  Markus…are you still planning on going to speak to Tree-whisperer by yourself? River asks with more than a little hint of disapproval in her mental tone.

  “I am,” I confirm calmly. Several samurans meet my words with protest, most of them from my original village, but I’m curious to see that the Healer from the small red village and a few of the Warriors are among their number.

  Though their voices and words overlap, I’m able to get the gist – they’re concerned about me being hurt, or even killed at the very beginning of the conflict, dooming the rest of them. Now, I don’t agree with them that they’d be doomed, at least not immediately, but I do agree that losing me would be a blow. A significant blow. They’d recover – eventually – but it definitely wouldn’t be the calm handover that I’m aiming for.

  I cross my arms and wait until everyone settles down. Which they do when they realise that I’m not going to respond until they are calm again.

  “I’m not planning on risking myself unduly,” I do my best to reassure them. “But for my own peace of mind, I want to give them a final chance to leave. To avoid losing anyone. Because once we get started, we’ll be aiming to kill.”

  I could afford to take prisoners in the final fight with Flying-blade’s forces and when the Pathwalkers of the small red village had given up. But with these numbers arrayed against us, I can’t. Moreover, I suspect that I shouldn’t. Not unless their will is already broken too much to cause us any trouble. I’m not going to slaughter people who are genuinely surrendering, but I’m not going to hold back if they keep fighting, either.

  The fact is that the social fabric of my village is already under some strain after the Flying-blade’s attack. There’s still resentment towards the attackers, though less than I was expecting – perhaps it comes part and parcel with the general expectations of violence both within the village and between villages. And on the side of the attackers, as the Warriors show, there’s still a core stubborn contingent that are convinced they’ll go back home eventually. I wonder if Plant-shaper’s and Earth-shaper’s observations here will make any difference to that contingent – there might not be a home for them to go back to.

  I have hope that these stresses will ease – in fact, they have already reduced by a noticeable amount in the last two weeks. Realising that there are advantages to being part of my village is a large part of that, I think. It’s fortunate that we managed to get the food situation sorted quickly despite the damage to our farming and the increased number of mouths.

  But I don’t want to ramp up the tension once more by adding a whole load of more discontented samurans, even if I have the Willpower to Bind a number of them. And there’s the ever-present question of what to do with them when I leave.

  Not only that, but I suspect that my village needs to prove itself. We’ve got too big, too fast. If my understanding of samuran culture is correct, if we don’t deal with the red leader’s challenge properly, we’ll just be inviting another one – from her or from someone else. And nothing demonstrates strength to a samuran better than overwhelming force.

  Which means, like it or not – and honestly, I don’t – I need to go into a battle with sapients with the cold-blooded intent to kill as many of them as look like they might try to attack me or mine. And I can only justify that to myself by at least giving them one last chance to back out. Even if that means revealing that we know they’re there. Even if that means putting myself at some risk.

  Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m going to be cavalier about my safety either, and I’ll assume that the red leader won’t take my warning to heart and make sure my village is prepared for the fight. But I need to give them the option, so that I know any in the fight have chosen to be there.

  Plus, not that I’m planning on telling anyone but River since I need her help, I’m hoping to use the time to prepare some nasty little surprises for Tree-whisperer. Ones that might make a big difference in the fight between our villages.

  How are you planning on doing this? River asks. Her expression shows that she doesn’t like it, not at all, but that she senses I won’t be talked out of it.

  “I’m going to fly – they won’t be expecting that and it will prevent any of the land-bound fighters from reaching me,” I tell her, though I know that the others are listening just as intently as she is. “And I’ll be taking Water-former and the Healer from her village with me.”

  What? asks Tarra sharply, and I sense added disapproval in her tone – I know why. She and Healer have built something of a connection. Or perhaps they had the connection before and have just not let the fact that one of them invaded the village of the other get in the way.

  “I told her in the message I sent with the Warrior to her village that she could negotiate back for her Pathwalkers if she brought enough of a ransom and promised to walk away in peace,” I remind Tarra. “I need to at least give her the opportunity to do so. I know it’s unlikely that they will accept considering the numbers she’s come with, but it’s possible that she’s only brought those numbers to ensure her own safety.” I know that that’s probably a fool’s hope, but if this can be resolved peacefully, then all the better. “Hopefully their presence will make her less inclined to ask her fighters to shoot at me.”

  Tarra doesn’t look very happy about it but she recognises what I’m saying and subsides. Several of the other Pathwalkers exchange glances, but they soon focus in as we start the main part of the discussion. Knowledge is power, and identifying what sorts of tactics our enemies will use may be key to winning this without losing too many of our own. Fortunately, we have several Warriors and Pathwalkers here who are familiar to at least a certain extent with a good number of the fighters moving against us.

  I don’t want to jinx us, but I’m honestly pretty hopeful about our chances here, whether or not Tree-whisperer gives up without a fight.

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